When Freeman exited Friday’s game, there was immediate reaction that he had aggravated the wrist injury that limited him for last season’s final four months and throughout this past offseason. But it has since been learned the discomfort was located in his hand and that it was likely a product of scar tissue that developed after he received multiple cortisone injections last year.

Freeman plans to compile four plate appearances during Monday’s home game against the Rays. He will rest on Tuesday and then attempt to play in each of the home games scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“It was the wrist last year and that’s the big part because I’m very violent with my wrist with my follow through,” Freeman said. “I knew right away [Friday’s discomfort] wasn’t my wrist. Talking the past couple days, I think it was just some scar tissue that will get worked out because I’ve had a lot of needles in my hand and wrist over the past [nine] months. Once we get that all broken up, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about this any more.”

Cortisone injections are no joke: corticosteroids are serious stuff and you really don’t want to get them too often, and this raises more questions about the way the Braves handled Freeman last year. Still, the most important thing is that the wrist’s okay. For now, as far as we know, it is.

It’s incredible that Albies was literally born after Andruw Jones’s debut. I still remember being astonished by the fact that Andruw Jones was so young that his favorite player growing up was Ken Griffey, Jr.

A lot of times there’s nothing you can do about a wrist injury. Surgery doesn’t guarantee the greatest of outcomes either. I think the best hitter on the team probably has a wide array of medical options – even outside of the Braves staff. Hopefully those cortisone shots work.

I know an ex nfl player (not well, but famous and long career) that lives 50 miles or so from me. He reached the point that he had 10 steroid injections after each game in his knuckles to keep playing. Well, he had hip replacement from asceptic necrosis brought on by that.

I am sure the medical staffs are more careful now, but it sure sounded like a way too extreme usage of corticosteroids.

I had a weird joint problem and my doctor at Emory told me that he could cure every patient he saw with steroids if he could just prevent the side effects.

According to DOB, Withrow being sent down was to allow him more time to recover from TJ.

As it stands on 3/14, this is my prediction for the Opening Day rotation and bullpen: Teheran/Norris/Wisler/Chacin/Banuelos, Vizcaino/Johnson/Ogando/Torres/Perez/Rutckyz/Ramirez with Ramirez or Rutckyz getting sent down when Grilli is available. And while you can never have enough good relievers (last year being case in point), I honestly wonder what the Braves will do with all of these righty relievers if/when Simmons and Withrow are healthy. You can’t send Johnson/Ogando down, but they don’t have much trade value if they’re producing, so that’s tough. Then you have Folty, and you want a lefty in the rotation in Banuelos, an innings eater in Norris, and Teheran/Wisler/Chacin have most likely earned a spot, so I don’t know what you do there. I think all of this definitely points to Perez being sent down at some point.

@8. Seems like the Braves are getting more cautious with TJ patients (from AJC):

“Instead of aiming to have Simmons back pitching on a rehab stint in about 12 months and back in the big leagues in 13-14 months, as they would have in the past, the Braves are aiming to have him back in the majors in May or June. That would be 15-16 months after his February 2015 surgery.

“I guess technically I’m healthy,” said Simmons, who has thrown a few times off the bullpen mound recently. “But they want to take me a little slower. They’re doing the new protocol that they’re going by, so we’re looking at about 14 months (before beginning a rehab assignment). I guess they just want to test it and see the success rates compared to the past.”

Lots of gondeee talk about Bourn and Swisher as trade candidates. I’m trying hard and can’t imagine being in a position where I looked at either player and wanted to a) take on any portion of their contracts and b) give up something of value for the privilege. I still think the only way they become tradable is with a very good first half performance.

So where are people at with Olivera right now? 32 ABs in, he’s 14-32, .438/.441/.500. He’s not walking, hasn’t hit any home runs, but he’s got a .941 OPS and he seems to be playing a half-way decent left. I can’t imagine he’s going to hit an empty .280 and be a net-loss offensively, but with no walks and no power, that’s concerning.

And Swisher and Bourn are only here because Wren signed Chris Johnson. They are both absolute sunk costs, have no value whatsoever (or, really, negative value), and if Francoeur/KJ/Mallex/Beckham/Bonifacio/Johnson are better fits for the roster, then so be it. It annoys me that Swisher is the focus of articles on AtlantaBraves.com. Why does anyone care about the 35th best player on the roster?

Yeah, I wouldn’t spend much time looking at spring components. A lot of the pitchers he’s facing are working on various things: getting feel for their breaking ball, regaining command of their fastball, and so on.

Still, the fact that he’s getting hits when he’s swinging the ball is good to see, particularly since — with the possible exception of 25 plate appearances in Double-A Tulsa right before the trade last year — this is essentially the first time he’s had any success in a major league uniform. Here’s hoping he can still swing when the games start to count, and actually stay on the field. He has a long butcher’s bill of medical problems behind him.

The Braves’ starter today (and putative #2 or #3 in the MLB rotation, I think) Bud Norris is also getting hit hard by the Tigers – no great shame in that, they have a good offense. I don’t think I’ve watched Norris pitch before; my first impression is “power pitcher who lacks power”. Powerless Pitcher?

You know I think I would rather have Francouer on this team than Beckham. I just don’t see a lot that Beckham offers that Castro doesn’t. We also have KJ and Bonifacio, so it’s not like we aren’t two deep in the infield. At least Francouer has some power and could be a decent defensive replacement in late innings.

Nick Swisher – Le Carre had a memorable turn of phrase for racehorses way past their best – ‘never wozzers’..they weren’t ever any good though, Nick presumably was thus the 15M..at least a horse you can have put down.

Bud Norris… NO

Frankie Rodriguez…who remembers the public intra-family punch up at Shea(?) when he did a pretty good hit job on his father in law, or someone of that ilk..he was a nasty boy back then, angelic now? Nah.

Salty…has there ever been a Brave who won a WS ring with his adopted team who then couldn’t get rid of him quickly enough? Throughout the series he got plenty of playing time while the talking heads all pointed out how poorly he was performing..strange

Verlander,5 K’s…has apparently got his act well back together – or was it just us?

I have been liking what I’ve seen from Reid Brignac. I thought he was one of those prospects who was not on the radar but had potential one day. Now that I find out he’s a 29 year old utilityman with a career batting average of .219 and a .576 career OPS over 8 seasons and 5 teams, I don’t see a whole lot of potential there. This gives me a whole new appreciation for the worthlessness of spring stats given his .412 BA and 1.161 OPS so far this spring.

I have caught myself wondering this morning – exactly what it must be like to walk away from 13 million dollars. It’s not that a great deal was expected from you in your last year. Miggy and a few others would do what they have always done and carry the load. You might have started 40, 50 games. And it bears no relation to your contemporary in the NFL who must weigh the money against further damage to his addled brain. Anyway, good for Adam, nice guy.

To finish with a question on this topic(no looking up pse, memory only)…

who was the first Baseball player to walk away from the last year of a guaranteed contract that would have paid him a 7 figure sum? How long ago?

I personally sell my time and happiness for far less, but when you have already earned $58 million, there are certainly diminishing returns. Missing another year of your kids’ lives, enduring back pain, being plain lousy on a national stage despite being one of the best 100 or so best hitters in the world just a couple years ago. Those are costs that might outweigh a few more million for someone who is extravagantly wealthy.

@51 could not agree more…but here and elsewhere you can get shot down if you take that position on a Brave…McCann’s the one who got to me, what did that additional Yankee 10 or 12 million mean to him in the context of his Georgia family and club roots…do you really think he now believes he made the right decision? A million here, a million there – as someone did not once say it’s not real money. For them.

Why don’t we change our name for only this year to the Atlanta Cap Tippers? This way this year’s record wouldn’t count against the Braves franchise. Instead of the tomahawk chop for our rally cry we could have the cap tip. Same motion and same music as the chop, just with a cap in our hand.

Sorry, but I am completely on board the White Sox position in the LaRoche contretemps. LaRoche did this to a lesser extent as a Nat, and I was truly puzzled by it. It has nothing to do with “supporting family,” or how everyone agrees how wonderful his kid is. It’s about the business purpose of the team.

1) The clubhouse is the actual workplace of the team. Non-employees shouldn’t be there. They certainly don’t deserve to be there on a daily basis wearing a pretend uniform, no matter how wonderful they are.
2) Part of being a team is — everybody is treated the same. One player who gets special privileges — be it RGIII’s special parking spot, or Barry Bonds entourage, or yes, even LaRoche’s super great kid — undermines the concept. I’m sure that tons of players would like to do this — it’s cool to have your kid be the clubbie. Only LaRoche’s kid gets this privilege?

@67, I agree. I think it’s laudable to put family above millions, but as the details have unfolded, it sounds more like a petulant tantrum. Life has taught me that human interactions are complicated, and there is rarely a villain and a saint in any conflict.

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch